As O.J. Simpson sits in jail in Nevada, his NFL Hall of Fame ring has become the object of a custody battle in California, where a judge ordered Friday that a memorabilia dealer hand it over.
The dealer, Alfred Beardsley, is one of two men Simpson was convicted this month of robbing in a Las Vegas hotel room last year. Attorneys representing Fred Goldman in his effort to collect his share of a $33.5 million wrongful death judgment say they have learned Simpson gave the ring to Beardsley sometime after the robbery.
Following a hearing that lasted no more than five minutes, Superior Court Judge Gerald Rosenberg ordered that Beardsley, 46, appear in his courtroom on Nov. 19 and produce the ring. He also ordered Simpson, who is in jail in Las Vegas awaiting sentencing, to not make any effort to dispose of the ring.
But Rosenberg also noted that getting Beardsley to court next month could be problematic. The memorabilia dealer is incarcerated at a state prison in Chino on a parole violation. He was convicted in 2003 of stalking a woman.
"How are you going to get him here?" Rosenberg asked Goldman attorney Peter Haven.
"We'll make the arrangements," Haven replied.
Haven is one of two attorneys representing Goldman, the father of Ron Goldman, who was stabbed to death with Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson in Los Angeles in 1994.
Simpson was acquitted of those killings but later held liable for the deaths by a civil court jury that ordered he pay the victims' survivors $33.5 million.
Most of that judgment remains unpaid, but Fred Goldman has dedicated his life to making Simpson hand over as many of his assets as possible, saying it is the only way to achieve justice for his son. His attorneys believe the ring could be auctioned for as much as $50,000.